Mario Kart 8 Reviews

Mario Kart 8 is ranked in the 98th percentile of games scored on OpenCritic.
9 / 10.0
May 30, 2014

Mario Kart 8 is my favorite series entry since Double Dash, and if it gets arena battle tracks at some point by way of DLC, it will be a near-perfect package. Its vibrant visuals will hold up for years to come, ensuring that the game will withstand the test of time, and it will be a staple in my household for a long, long while.

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9 / 10
May 14, 2014

The best Mario Kart has ever been, with a near perfect blend of features and frequently astonishing visuals – despite some unnecessary repetition in track settings.

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Aug 1, 2014

Mario Kart 8 is a sterling example of Nintendo at their best as craftsmen, a game whose attention to detail and joy is mostly unsullied by some unfortunate misunderstandings about how people communicate online.

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8 / 10
May 15, 2014

Mario Kart 8 shows a playful spirit, refinement, and attention to detail that has been missing in the last few entries.

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8 / 10.0
May 29, 2014

The core racing, driving and course design in Mario Kart 8 is better than any of the seven games that came before it. But battle mode stinks

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May 14, 2014

You'd be hard pressed to argue against the potency and sheer joy of Mario Kart 8's racing and track design. Likely to be more contentious is its resolutely, almost stubbornly, simple structure in both single and multiplayer.

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May 15, 2014

Intuitive controls, beautiful circuits, and a perfectly realigned power-up system – Mario Kart 8 has set out to top the 1992 original

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JVL
Alc!de
Top Critic
17 / 20
Jun 9, 2014

Without a shadow of a doubt, Mario Kart 8 is a high-flying episode. Heir to a string of opuses sharing the same DNA, we are nevertheless surprised to spend countless hours on an incredibly fun game with more stunning tracks than ever and which offer us a refreshing point of view.

Review in French | Read full review

May 14, 2014

Mario Kart 8 is a conservative update, choosing to polish and refine rather than reinvent, but it's still as alluring a racer as it ever has been.

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89 / 100
May 22, 2014

There is no doubt that Mario Kart 8 is a great game, plain and simple.  With the power of the Wii U at their disposal Nintendo has been able to create some really great looking tracks, add a lot more racers for you to compete against, and there is a fairly robust local and online multiplayer component for fans to enjoy.  But don't get me wrong, there is also a bump or two that along the road to greatness as well.  At the end of the day if you have a Wii U you'd be crazy not to pick up this game.  If you're still don't own a Wii U Mario Kart 8 is yet another title to make you realize that Nintendo's "next-gen" machine is capable of great games that the whole family can enjoy.

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Ken McKown
Top Critic
9 / 10.0
May 27, 2014

Mario Kart 8 is certainly more Mario Kart, but that isn't a bad thing. Any series that can last over two decades and still generate this much love from gamers has to be doing something right. While the latest entry doesn't set the world on fire with its innovation, it makes up for it by delivering some of the best tracks in the history of the franchise, and rock-solid visuals.

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9 / 10.0
May 15, 2014

Nintendo's created a heck of a Mario Kart game that's great for fans and newcomers alike. It's what this series should be.

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9.8 / 10.0
May 15, 2014

Mario Kart 8 is the new showcase title for the WiiU. If the fantastic visuals were never a hard sell for you, know that the gameplay really makes this game a must own for any WiiU owner.

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9 / 10
May 15, 2014

Mario Kart 8 forms a loop that connects everything that makes Mario Kart one of the greatest multiplayer series of all time, not to mention offering what is expected of a spectacular title on a console like the Wii U.

Review in French | Read full review

9 / 10.0
May 15, 2014

Mario Kart is one of the things nintendo knows how to do best. This new chapter demonstrates this with obvious clarity, precisely because it is not content to revise the driving model here and there, to add some new power-ups and to improve the balance and the overall variety. Mario Kart 8, in addition to doing all this, pushes on the accelerator of design, proposing 32 tracks one more beautiful than the other.

Review in Italian | Read full review

9 / 10.0
May 25, 2014

To say that Mario Kart is popular is an understatement. Few series have ever matched its twenty-year legacy of sheer popularity and critical acclaim, so needless to say, Mario Kart 8 has a lot to live up to. Expectations have perhaps never been higher, as this is the first entry on a high-definition, online-competent console, but the game pretty much fulfills all of them. It is classic Mario Kart and that means it\'s great — the game even throws in several cool improvements and additions to the franchise. But it is not quite perfect, and by no means is it a revolution.

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9 / 10
May 14, 2014

Nintendo promised and delivered. Mario Kart 8 is the shiniest star in one of the shiniest series in the world of videogames. Perfectly fine-tuned gameplay, a leap in the right direction for the online component, a magnificent audio-visual pillar worthy of the Wii U and an immensely fun and absorbing experience, whether solo or multiplayer, making Mario Kart 8 an instant and timeless classic.

Review in Portuguese | Read full review

May 15, 2014

There is no reason to wait any longer. Get a Wii U and buy Mario Kart 8.

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Will Greenwald
Top Critic
May 15, 2014

Mario Kart 8 for the Nintendo Wii U is the best-looking Mario Kart to date (and the first with HD graphics), thanks to some fantastic new and remixed tracks.

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May 27, 2014

I commend Nintendo for crafting a game that continues to cater to those who still love having friends over to compete, but Mario Kart 8 needs to step out of its comfort zone in other ways. Despite this game's gleaming high-definition sheen, there's little doubt this granddaddy of the karting genre is beginning to show its age.

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